There was a time when Brink seriously tried to tout itself as “The End of the Genre As We Know it”. Now GameTrailers has nominated it as a contender for “Most Disappointing Game of 2011”. That’s hard-earned recognition, I’d say. All of that silly marketing backfired, and don’t mind saying I’ll kick it while it’s down. Kudos to Gametrailers for admitting that it fell for the stupid hype.

Yes, there’s the possibility that we’ll see awesome games, consoles and innovations; Nintendo supposedly has a new console to reveal, and of course Kojima Productions will have its own spotlight, even if the man who the company is named after is shunning the event. Some think that Sony and Microsoft will also reveal their plans for new consoles, even if it’s basically just a concept. So there could be sweet news!

But as my old grand-uncle William Shakespeare used to say: all that glimmers is not gold. There’s also the harsh reality that businesses love making huge promises that ultimately become stupid disappointments. If you’re the kind of person who is satisfied by simply having something new to speculate about (a stance I’ve been known to take), then it’s probably a win-win situation. But please, if you’re going to speculate, do it right: balance your hype with some criticism and realism, okay? 70% of all new ideas are garbage.